&#8220Topping-out” Pool and Ice Rink

Local Queens and city dignitaries joined workers and their guests at the site of the future Flushing Meadows-Corona Park pool and ice rink for the &#8220topping-out” ceremony on Thursday, October 26. This celebration marked the safe and successful completion of the highest point of this massive, yet elegant structure.
The Flushing Meadows-Corona Park pool and ice rink is the largest recreation facility ever built in a City park. The project, with a budget of $60 million, was funded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall after being championed by former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman.
The new complex, scheduled to be completed next fall, will house an Olympic-size pool and a NHL-caliber ice rink. Following the speeches, construction crews hoisted a beam with the Parks Department flag to join the American flag at the top the structure.
Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the assembled crowd the city is growing, and that its parks are growing at the greatest rate since the 1930s. Since 2002, Parks & Recreation has invested $157 million in Queens parks. There is an additional $73 million in active construction to be completed over the next two years as well as $75 million in projects in the design or planning stage.
Marshall said that this was the largest project of her term. Shulman reminded listeners that the project became feasible because of the generosity of U.S. Open Tennis officials who donated $8 million for a trust fund that is now worth $14 million and ensures that the borough has sufficient funds to maintain and run the facility.